Oscar Piastri has labelled qualifying for the São Paulo Grand Prix — and the weekend on the whole — "bizarre" given the lack of performance from the softest compound of tyre at Interlagos.
The McLaren driver set the fourth-quickest time in the grid-setting session in Brazil, and was quick to point out the lack of lap time evolution throughout the hour.
It has been a difficult round for the Australian, who crashed out of the sprint in changeable conditions, which saw Lando Norris extend his lead in the F1 drivers' championship to nine points after winning the one-third distance race.
Reflecting on qualifying, which saw his team-mate take pole position, Piastri explained what caused his underwhelming pace, having shown strong form in practice.
"The qualifying session itself wasn't easy, a bit of a bizarre session and weekend, with the soft tyre just not working for some reason," he told media, including RacingNews365. "And to have pretty much zero lap time improvement through Q1, Q2, and Q3 is quite weird.
"So, yeah, just feels like things are not flowing that easily at the moment. I had pretty good confidence in the car on Friday.
"Saturday felt like it was a bit trickier for everybody, and I just struggled to get the most out of the car."
In order to prevent Norris' advantage from growing in the grand prix, Piastri will need to be aggressive and decisive to dispatch of Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc, who line up between them.
When asked how he can turn things around, the nine-time grand prix winner replied: "Just try and pass a few cars...
"That's all I can try and do. Just try and capitalise on any opportunities that come up and see what happens."
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The question mark
Piastri has struggled through a poor patch of performance in recent rounds, which has seen his once 34-point lead in the standings evaporate.
However, although the threat of adverse weather has largely remained unrealised, there is still an opportunity for the 24-year-old through the strategic jeopardy in Brazil.
Pirelli has brought tyres from its range that are all a step harder than 12 months ago, which has created "a bit of a question mark," in Piastri's view.
When it was put to him that Turn 1 would likely be his best chance to make up ground, he quickly turned the focus to tyre selection.
"We'll have to wait and see," he responded. "It did look relatively tough in the sprint, but it was also quite wet offline, which made things tough.
"I think there's also a bit of a question on what tyres to use, because the soft has not looked great; it's not been good in qualifying, and it's not looked great in the sprint either, so I think there's a bit of a question mark on that too, and maybe that'll give me some opportunities."
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